WHEN Ange Postecoglou said he would rather go down swinging in Europe than hope to just stay on his feet, boy did he mean it. And after a topsy-turvy game against AZ Alkmaar that bordered on the bonkers at times, the Celtic manager is still standing.

This is a Celtic team that will have your heart racing at one end and give you heart palpitations at the other.

Take a fair dollop of defending by the seat of your pants, a pinch of passing out from even the stickiest spots, sprinkle a dash of magic from the Wizard of Oz Tom Rogic and top it all off with the swashbuckling brilliance of Kyogo Furuhashi, and Postecoglou has come up with an intoxicating mix that has the Celtic support begging for more. Even if it can also leave them feeling a little bit queasy at times.

It may have been AZ Alkmaar who were sick to have left Celtic Park having somehow not breached Joe Hart’s goal. As it was, a stunning piece of first-half play between Rogic and Furuhashi that ended with the Japanese forward crashing home his sixth goal in six matches since arriving in Glasgow, and a huge slice of fortune that saw James Forrest claim a deflected second, was enough to give Celtic a hugely valuable lead going into next week’s second leg in The Netherlands.

There was some good news on the teamsheet for Celtic fans as Liel Abada was passed fit to take his place on the right of the attack, so Forrest reverted to the left, Furuhashi went back up front, and Odsonne Edouard dropped back to the bench.

AZ were first to threaten, as Zakaria Aboukhlal skipped past Stephen Welsh all too easily, and then went to ground inside the area as the Celtic defender scrambled desperately to get back at him. Celtic park held its breath, and referee Ovidiu Hategan held his hands by his side.

The home side were sliced open in alarming fashion again moments later, Aboukhlal getting in down the left on this occasion and squaring invitingly for Evangelos Pavlidis. It looked for all the world as if the net would momentarily be bulging, but Joe Hart got a touch to the striker’s low effort, and it trickled off the inside of the post and rebounded to safety.

Celtic needed a response, and my, how they got it.

Rogic, so revitalised under Postecoglou, picked up a bouncing ball on the left edge of the Alkmaar area and got those magical feet moving to dance his way to the byline. He got his head up and curled a peach of a cross to the back post, where Furuhashi threw himself through the air to volley into the roof of the net and almost take the roof off Celtic Park.

Now the hosts’ tails were up, and two quickfire efforts from Abada and Rogic were swatted away in unconvincing fashion by goalkeeper Hobie Verhulst, before a delightful through ball from Rogic almost put Abada in again.

Forrest then tested Verhulst with a long-range curling effort, before a slack pass from Carl Starfelt gave the visitors a sniff at the other end, Aboukhlal darting into the space he had left behind and drawing another decent stop from Hart.

The half-time interval arrived and along with it some welcome respite from the breathless action that had unfolded on the field of play.

Before you had time to compose yourself though, the second half had started as the first, with the visitors creating – and squandering – a gilt-edged opportunity. The outstretched leg of Welsh just prevented a tap-in Pavlidis, but the ball came back to the forward who in turn teed up Thijs Oosting, with the midfielder blazing over from close range.

The hosts steadied once more before Abada ran out of steam, Edouard coming on up top to replace him with Furuhashi dropping back to the left.

Celtic were slowly building momentum once more, but when the second goal arrived, it was as much serendipitous as the first goal was sumptuous.

Turnbull won the ball back high on the right and fed it into Furuhashi, who picked out Forrest in the area. His shot on the turn looked to be covered by Verhulst, but the ball ricocheted off the retreating Timo Letschert, completely wrong-footing the keeper and nestling in the opposite side of the goal.

Of course, there was almost immediately a scare at the other end. A low cross into the Celtic area had three men in red shirts waiting to tap it in at the back post, but the impressive Anthony Ralston appeared as if from nowhere to slide in and hook the ball to safety.

As the clock ticked down, the two-goal lead began to look a very inviting one indeed, and James McCarthy was brought on to try and bring a bit of calm to proceedings, but his teammates clearly didn’t get the memo.

Ralston burst forward to get to the byline, and cut the ball back for Edouard to adjust and get a shot on goal that was brilliantly clawed out by Verhulst. Edouard reacted, heading the rebound towards goal once more, but again, the goalkeeper reacted brilliantly to somehow claw the ball off the line.

Even then, with Verhulst now in the net, Celtic couldn’t force it home, as a final effort from substitute Adam Montgomery was headed clear at the last.

It was a chaotic sequence in-keeping with the theme of the evening. There may be a huge element of risk involved with the way Celtic play these days, but so far for Postecoglou and his men, the rewards keep rolling in.